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  1. Comment on Summer Games Done Quick 2023, a week-long charity fundraising event featuring speedruns, has begun in ~games

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    The question was why did they go back to doing it online for subsequent events. Thanks.

    The question was why did they go back to doing it online for subsequent events. Thanks.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Summer Games Done Quick 2023, a week-long charity fundraising event featuring speedruns, has begun in ~games

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    Honestly, I'm european and it takes me a week to change my sleep schedule one way or another, so I'm used to having to make those kinds of choices. Looks like I missed SGDQ 2022 being in person....

    Honestly, I'm european and it takes me a week to change my sleep schedule one way or another, so I'm used to having to make those kinds of choices.

    Looks like I missed SGDQ 2022 being in person. Why did they go back?

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Summer Games Done Quick 2023, a week-long charity fundraising event featuring speedruns, has begun in ~games

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    Excited for Ender Lilies and Hi-Fi Rush, among others!

    Excited for Ender Lilies and Hi-Fi Rush, among others!

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Summer Games Done Quick 2023, a week-long charity fundraising event featuring speedruns, has begun in ~games

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    I don't think there's any lack of interest. I think it's likely that they kept the seats free on purpose - they also required proof of vaccination from attendees (it is their first live event...

    I don't think there's any lack of interest. I think it's likely that they kept the seats free on purpose - they also required proof of vaccination from attendees (it is their first live event since the pre-pandemic, right?). Online viewership would likely have been higher if they had included a full weekend in the event (not doing so is likely a mistake). Also, I appreciate that they include a greater variety of games instead of just repeating the more popular ones, which might bring in more viewers.

    That said, dillution is a real concern with the weekly streams potentially cooling down interest in the event in the long run.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Tildes Pop-Up Game Event: Demo Disc Days in ~games

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    Oh, go ahead. I read this as mundane_and_naive started it themself thus fulfilling the requirements. Honestly if it's up to me I could probably fill up most of the table on my own but I understand...

    Oh, go ahead. I read this as mundane_and_naive started it themself thus fulfilling the requirements. Honestly if it's up to me I could probably fill up most of the table on my own but I understand you're supposed to not have played the game beforehand?

    2 votes

  6. Comment on How do you decide if a piece of music is good? in ~music

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    I have good memory for melodies and patterns, so I end up hating most simplistic catchy songs, since even if I stop listening to them they'll keep playing nonstop in my head. So strictly speaking...

    I have good memory for melodies and patterns, so I end up hating most simplistic catchy songs, since even if I stop listening to them they'll keep playing nonstop in my head. So strictly speaking I tend to prefer complex, rich genres that overload this feature of my brain, such as by having songs that have several or unconventional instruments/synthesizers and voices, or that are very long.

    I also appreciate musical complexity for the skill it demands from the composer and performers. Better music for me tends to be a demonstration of skill. Naturally I don't just mean a band should throw a mess of sounds into a blender and hope for the best; I expect the different parts to work well together, or to contrast in a meaningful way.

    When singing karaoke on the other hand I'd rather exploit my memory and sing something I know well (I probably know hundreds of songs). I prefer songs in which the vocals are in tune rather than that thing some singers do with their voices going all over the place, it's so hard to replicate. Or rather than spoken words in songs (sorry, the entire rap genre).

    That said, in the end my taste converges with yours somewhat. There are soundtracks from movies and games that I really like.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Tildes Pop-Up Game Event: Demo Disc Days in ~games

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    I reached, uh, wormship? 6 yesterday. The game mechanics are getting wild. Currently have 4 unsolved levels from previous areas that I just don't know enough to solve yet.

    I reached, uh, wormship? 6 yesterday. The game mechanics are getting wild. Currently have 4 unsolved levels from previous areas that I just don't know enough to solve yet.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Comcast introduces NOW TV as a cable alternative in ~tv

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    You can't be blamed for the tragic lack of Phineas and Ferb in the lives of other people's kids!

    You can't be blamed for the tragic lack of Phineas and Ferb in the lives of other people's kids!

    5 votes

  9. Comment on Disney removes dozens of series from Disney+ and Hulu, including ‘Big Shot’, ‘Willow’, ‘Y’ and ‘Dollface’ in ~tv

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    As the article mentions, HBO did the same. I guess it's possible they're doing it because they are under the mistaken impression that if they remove this stuff fans will magically be instead...

    As the article mentions, HBO did the same.

    The list features largely short-lived series, specials and direct-to-streaming movies.

    I guess it's possible they're doing it because they are under the mistaken impression that if they remove this stuff fans will magically be instead interested in more mainstream offerings, allowing them to focus on those and increase profitability.

    Or maybe there's something to the comments in the article saying they're doing it so they don't have to keep paying residuals to their actors and writers... I mean Disney does have a history of not wanting to pay their writers at all.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Conan O’Brien Must Go | Sneak peek in ~tv

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    Belly laugh from a youtube comment. Never thought I'd see the day.

    Just In: HBO Max has announced that Conan O'Brien Must Go will now be hosted by Jay Leno.

    Belly laugh from a youtube comment. Never thought I'd see the day.

    8 votes

  11. Comment on This free TV comes with two screens - Would you give up your data in exchange for a free TV? in ~tech

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    It wouldn't be enough, since Fun!

    It wouldn't be enough, since

    When the Theatre display (top screen) is not in use, the ad unit could come to life in a fun way connecting both

    Fun!

    7 votes

  12. Comment on What is a highly regarded/critically acclaimed movie that you do not like/understand the appeal? in ~movies

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    I really enjoyed this. It came during a deluge of everything-is-CGI type movies and it just felt refreshing to watch a "normal" (well, for QT standards) movie with real locations and nice...

    Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

    I really enjoyed this. It came during a deluge of everything-is-CGI type movies and it just felt refreshing to watch a "normal" (well, for QT standards) movie with real locations and nice cinematography.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Poor Things | Official teaser in ~movies

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    Interesting sets and wardrobe!

    Interesting sets and wardrobe!

    1 vote

  14. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    Intriguing is a word for it :D Hope you like puzzle solving! There are things in those preview screenshots/video I haven't encountered yet so I'm sure it gets even weirder.

    Intriguing is a word for it :D

    Hope you like puzzle solving!

    There are things in those preview screenshots/video I haven't encountered yet so I'm sure it gets even weirder.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    I'm playing Can of Wormholes. Anyone here played it? It's a really weird puzzle solving game in which for each level, seemingly, you control a worm on a grid and you need to make it to a...

    I'm playing Can of Wormholes. Anyone here played it? It's a really weird puzzle solving game in which for each level, seemingly, you control a worm on a grid and you need to make it to a destination point and position with all kinds of caveats, such as having to be the right length - you can eat pellets to grow, and later chop yourself off; you have to account for impassable walls and bridge gaps with pieces of dead worms - which can also be chopped. You have to flip the worm around, and then later you find out you can also push the pellets, use them as bridges, chop dead worms into pellets, eat the dead worms themselves without digesting them, it's very weird.

    I'd say the puzzles are quite challenging. Each level has a "gain insight" mode that gives you a simpler version of the same puzzle to solve in order to help you learn how the game expects you to think in that kind of situation. This isn't bad per se, and it works for a lot of people, but I find that "gain insight" more often than not teaches me the part of the puzzle I managed to figure out on my own and leaves out the part I'm having trouble with, which is often the difficulty of the execution itself, I suppose.

    There's a whole meta game thing whose mechanics I feel I'm not yet 100% cognizant of. Because you see, these puzzles are all set up in some kind of weird worm shaped spaceship (spaceships?). Out in this meta world, you control an actual, literal, honest to goodness can. Of wormholes. Well, of hoops, at least. You can roll the can around in the axis parallel to the ends of the cylinder and you can spit out the hoops to activate each level. If worms are present on the screen, they'll gather around the can and fashion themselves into weird spider legs for the can, allowing you to move freely around like gaming's weirdest spider or shoot yourself back into can-only form in order to clear obstacles.

    When you make it to the cockpit end of your worm spaceship thingy, you can use one move per each puzzle solved to move the worm spaceship itself on a large meta-grid in order to connect it to other worm spaceships and roll or crawl your way into them in order to solve more puzzles and reach farther locations in the grid. I'm sure there's a point to all of this eventually. There also appears to be (unless it's a red herring) an obvious cross-puzzle mechanic in which the puzzles themselves have lines and connectors that seem to promise some form of multi-puzzle integration but I haven't gotten there yet.

    5 votes

  16. Comment on When Tintin entered the Cold War. As a spy thriller, 1954’s The Calculus Affair was far ahead of its time. in ~books

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    I should re-read the Tintin series. It was a favorite when I was younger (most of the books a single gift from my long deceased grandmother), but I haven't read it in many years now. I'm sure it...

    I should re-read the Tintin series. It was a favorite when I was younger (most of the books a single gift from my long deceased grandmother), but I haven't read it in many years now. I'm sure it would be interesting with more perspective, but also (the weird racist caricatures from the early books aside; even when I was a kid everything before The Black Island was no longer advertised or easily purchasable, though eventually I sought them out for context) the books felt like they took place in a real world and real history in a way non-european comics rarely do, in spite of the fictionalized countries.

    My parents own the entire (minus one mysteriously lost half year) run of the portuguese Tintin magazine, just over 14 years between 1968 and 1982 IIRC. This was a weekly magazine in the vein of what's still done in Japan, with a few pages of multiple ongoing stories and some single or half page shorts. The portuguese Tintin magazine is unique in that not only had (translated) stories from the belgian Tintin magazine but also from Dargaud comics like Asterix, Lucky Luke or even Gir's (Moebius') Blueberry, all in one neat package. It's some 2m tall stack of mid 20th century european comic goodness that I really should re-read as a whole.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Kena: Bridge of Spirits in ~games

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    Overall very good video. I agree with it on all points that matter - the creator of the video's opinion on how satisfying the fighting generally is and why seems to align with mine, with the same...

    Overall very good video. I agree with it on all points that matter - the creator of the video's opinion on how satisfying the fighting generally is and why seems to align with mine, with the same minor quibbles (such as regarding parrying). They also agree with me about how annoying it ends up getting that so much of what you find throughout the game only gives you hats! I don't personally recall the Taro fight being so broken (especially that grab), is that still the case? This video was made a year before I played the game myself, and during that time there were multiple patches, including the 2.0 anniversary patch for the Steam release (which has itself been patched since), so I wonder if they improved it. Notably, the video is also missing commentary on the features we know were added in 2.0 such as the challenges or the photo camera.

    I'm not sure (and, after a quick search, the developers seem to think the same) the game needs a sequel, not as such. I'm sure that if they do make a sequel they'll do a good job, but they might as well make something completely new. Personally, what I'd like to see in the unlikely sequel is a similar style/aesthetic, obviously more of Kena, more of the spirituality and tradition underpinning the first game, but with a completely new, completely distinct set of rules for how Kena interacts with the world. Maybe she's older, and she's in a completely different part of the world. She's still helping people pass on, but there are no rot there - their part in the story is over. Instead, a different kind of land spirit or spirits has to be handled differently, provides Kena with different abilities in a different way. Maybe even an air dash! (I fully agree with the author about giving a bigger role to travel into the spirit realm, by the way.)

    2 votes

  18. Comment on Kena: Bridge of Spirits in ~games

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    I can't watch such a long video right now - I'll probably watch tomorrow - but I played the game and wrote a paragraph about it here . I'd read criticism of the combat before, but I honestly...

    I can't watch such a long video right now - I'll probably watch tomorrow - but I played the game and wrote a paragraph about it here .

    I'd read criticism of the combat before, but I honestly didn't experience any notable friction from it. I enjoyed the challenge without turning down the difficulty to story (used an xbox controller). That's not to say it didn't have its frustrating moments, and I recall parrying being almost impossible without a whole lot of luck, but otherwise the enemy design seemed fun.

    When I manage to watch the video I'll comment again.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Planet of Lana | Release date trailer in ~games

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    Wohoo! This has been in my disorganized txt file for a while. My latest note on it was just "spring 2023" (more often than not those rough estimations are not accurate for indie games).

    Wohoo! This has been in my wishlistdisorganized txt file for a while. My latest note on it was just "spring 2023" (more often than not those rough estimations are not accurate for indie games).

    3 votes

  20. Comment on All Discord users will need to choose new username in ~tech

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    That's a relief, thanks for pointing that out.

    That's a relief, thanks for pointing that out.

    1 vote